by Kenneth Copeland

Start today practicing the life of love. One way to do that is by practicing God’s presence in your daily life. Develop an awareness that Love is constantly with you by talking to Him all the time.

And when you talk to Him, just get real. First thing in the morning when you open your eyes say, “Good morning, Lord. I love You and praise You today. I’m so glad You never leave me nor forsake me. I receive Your love for me and I want You to know my desire is to be a blessing to You. Help me, teach me and train me—whatever You desire for me to do, I’ll be willing and obedient. I’ll do it with a happy heart.”

When you start to practice God’s presence like that, it will change how you act throughout the day. You’ll start being more loving and kind—even when other people aren’t around to notice—because you’ll know the Lord is there and you have no desire to grieve Him.

The fact is, if you want to lay hold of the authority of God and walk in the supernatural, you can’t do it from your easy chair. You have to press in. Jesus said, “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it” (Luke 16:16). Paul wrote, “…I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own” (Philippians 3:12, The Amplified Bible).

Press in. That’s as important a concept for us today as it was in Moses’ time. Moses pressed in the Spirit. He wanted to see God’s glory. I’m that way too. I’d want to see God’s glory even if I knew I wouldn’t live through it.

That heart cry to know God keeps us pressing in to lay hold of more of His kingdom each day of our lives. It pushes us toward the goal of knowing Jesus and finishing the race God has set before us.

If you want to go on with God like Moses and Paul did, then that desire is going to have to become the cry of your heart. Paul’s heart cry to know the Lord made him determined not to quit. He was determined to press on until he laid hold of every task the Lord had for him.

One day while on a journey to bring persecution to the Church, Paul was laid hold of by Jesus. The King James Version of the Bible says he was “apprehended” by Jesus. From that time until the day he went to be with the Lord, Paul was committed to fulfilling the calling for which he was apprehended. He would not quit early. Even with his intense desire to be with Christ in heaven, Paul was willing to stay on earth knowing the need of believers to whom he ministered (Philippians 1:21-26).

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

When these facts become a reality on the
inside of him, then he becomes a powerful
believer, a joint heir with Jesus Christ. He
knows that his Father has carefully planned
for his deliverance and for his victory. From
that point forward, he’ll never question
whether or not he should prosper or whether
or not he ought to be healed. He is no longer
on the defense—he is on the attack. He no
longer hesitates—he is constant and stable.

Jesus said He would build His Church on
the rock and the gates of hell would not prevail
against it (Matthew 16:18). In other
words, the powers of hell would not succeed
against it. That rock is the Word of God.
Jesus compared the man who acts on the
Word to a man who built his house on the
rock (Matthew 7:24). When the storm beat
against the house, it stood strong. In this
parable the storm beat against both houses—
the one on the rock and the one on the sand.
The same storm hit both houses. It wasn’t the
storm that made the house strong. The house
was strong before the storm hit. It was built
on a firm foundation. This is how the Body
of Christ is to be—built on the firm foundation
of the Word of God.

Become single-minded. Make the decision—
choose life and blessing. Decide to
win—decide to overcome. Until this decision
is made, you will be double-minded. But the
moment you make your decision to be a
winner, you will be out on top! There will be
times when you’ll have to stand and be
patient and consistent, but when a man is
consistent on the Word of God, he will know
the Truth and the Truth will make him free.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

With every situation and every circumstance,
we must make a very definite choice.
Notice Deuteronomy 30:19:

I call heaven and earth to record
this day against you, that I have set
before you life and death, blessing and
cursing: therefore choose life, that both
thou and thy seed may live.

The choice is yours—either life or death,
blessing or cursing. God has set this choice
before you with His written Word. The only
way you can find the true definitions of life
and death is by studying His Word.

Jesus said, “My words are life” (John
6:63). God told Joshua that if he would meditate
in the Word day and night, he would
prosper and have good success. Proverbs
4:20-22 tells us to attend to the words of
God “for they are life unto those that find them,
and health to all their flesh.”

In order to choose life and blessing, you
will have to choose the Word of God, for it is
life. You will have to become Word-minded
instead of trouble-minded, life-minded
instead of death-minded. You will have to
become single-minded on the Word of God.
When you become Word-minded, you begin
to realize that He Who raised Jesus from the
dead is residing in you and He that is in you
is greater than he that is in the world.

The dividing line between life and death
is this: The thief, Satan, comes only to kill,
steal and to destroy. Jesus came that we
might have life and have it more abundantly
(John 10:10).

Satan is the thief. He is trying to rob the Body of
Christ of its power. The believer has the whole
armor of God available to him, and Satan has no
defense for that armor. He must deceive the
believer and sidetrack him. He must operate
in the world of the natural because in the
world of the spirit, the believer can beat him
with his powerful spiritual weapons. The
Sword of the Spirit, God’s Word, can wound
Satan deeply, so he uses deception.

He comes against the believer in the
physical world and tries to convince him that
God is actually the one who made him sick
or that God took his baby or that God wants
him to live in poverty. If the believer entertains
those thoughts for any length of time,
he will begin to doubt. He will hesitate. He
will become double-minded. That hesitation
will give Satan a valuable advantage. Then
the next time Satan attacks, that believer will
be a little easier to defeat.

The believer must decide not to back up
any longer. The man that is single-minded
on God’s Word has to know for sure that
God’s will was Jesus on the Cross; that God’s
will is for him to prosper and be in health;
that God’s will is to meet all his needs
according to His riches in glory by Christ
Jesus; that God’s will is for him to receive
the blessings of Abraham through faith in
Jesus Christ.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

What about the question of whether or not
God permits bad things to happen to us? The
answer to that is yes, He does permit them.
There isn’t much He can do about it! Why?
Because we have been given authority in the
earth. God gave Adam the authority to rule
the earth, to have dominion over it, and to
subdue it. God didn’t butt in on man’s business
after that. He kept His Word with Adam,
even though He had to swear to His own
hurt to keep it. Did God send the devil in to
get Adam? No, He kicked out the devil and
gave Adam authority over the whole situation.
Adam was the one that let in the devil.
Jesus said, “All power has been given unto
me, both in heaven and on earth, so you go
into all the world and preach the gospel. In
my Name, cast out the devil” (Matthew 28:18;
Mark 16:15-18). He gave the believer His
Word and the commission to do it. There
should be no hesitation, nothing dubious
about our thinking.

We have been given authority in the earth,
and when we let the thief run loose, there is
nothing God can do about it. A city judge has
legal authority, but if the policemen out in the
field just let the thief run loose and never get
him to the judge, then there’s nothing the judge
or the law can do about it. It’s the man out in
the field with authority to make arrests that
makes the difference between law and order and
a riot. You and I, as believers, are God’s policemen
in the field. We have the authority of the Name of
Jesus and the Sword of the Spirit. There is no
reason why Satan should run roughshod over any
born-again believer.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries